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A local real estate developer has emerged as a top contender to buy the 28-story M&I Plaza--potentially at half the
$50 million price the building fetched a decade ago.

Paul Kite Co. confirmed it is in talks with Maryland-based CapitalSource Inc., which took over
the struggling office tower in June after foreclosing on a $5 million mezzanine loan.

The 21-year-old building has been only about
30-percent occupied since its largest occupant, the law firm Bose McKinney & Evans, moved to the
nearby Chase Tower in September. It is no longer generating enough cash to cover payments on the $25
million first mortgage, market observers said.

CapitalSource had hoped to sell the building for $31 million, but the reluctant owners may now be
prepared to accept less. The building is valued at $66 million for tax-assessment purposes (a number
the owners are challenging), but it has traded hands for much less. It sold for about $50 million in
1997 and again for $38 million in 2002, when it was 70-percent occupied.

"It's true we're talking, but it's still up in the air," Paul Kite said in an e-mail.
"We have not yet entered into a contract."

Kite said he was about a week away from "being in or out" of the deal. He said CapitalSource
has other potential suitors. A big hurdle for almost any buyer would be securing financing, thanks to
a meltdown in capital markets.

The replacement cost of the 425,000-square-foot building, at 135 N. Pennyslvania St., likely would be $85 million or more,
making it a compelling value as a turnaround opportunity, said Andy Banister, a first vice president in the local office of
CB Richard Ellis, who is listing the building for sale.

"Everybody sees it as a great Class A building that obviously has occupancy issues that could
be a good long-term play," Banister said.

Potential buyers include a mix between local and regional players--"obviously it's got to
be somebody with the wherewithal to be patient as they lease it up," he said.

Another local firm, Halakar Properties, also
has looked at the building and still may consider a bid, said Todd Maurer, the company's president.

"It makes sense for us to look at this
building because of our ownership of One Indiana Square next door," he said.

CapitalSource is working with the holder of the first mortgage, a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based
Nationwide Insurance, and may consider providing seller financing in a bid to remove tight capital markets
as an impediment to a sale.

"The building has been well-received by the market," Banister said. "Hopefully we'll find the right group to
step in and take advantage of it."

Paul Kite Co.'s notable Indiana properties include the 1,000-acre 70 West Commerce Park in Plainfield,
a proposed 33-acre retail development at 86th Street and Olio Road in McCordsville, and Evansville's
Washington Square Mall.

The company also has properties in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. Paul Kite founded the firm
in 2004 after leaving what is now Kite Realty Group Trust. The new company is not affiliated with the publicly traded real
estate investment trust run by Paul's father, Al, and brother, John.

History has shown that local ownership of office buildings often leads to success, Halakar's Maurer
noted, citing Kite Realty Group Trust's 30 South Meridian, OneAmerica's One America Tower and his firm's
One Indiana Square.

Crown
Properties of New York and Greenfield Partners of Connecticut teamed to buy the tower, then known as First Indiana Plaza,
in 2002. The building took on the new moniker early this year after Milwaukee-based M&I acquired the Indianapolis bank.

Greenfield dropped out of the partnership last
year, leaving Crown as sole owner. It conveyed the property to CapitalSource after it foreclosed this
summer.

The owners had
tried for more than a year to sell the tower but couldn't find a buyer willing to pay anywhere near the rumored
asking price of $60 million.

Brokers and other observers have said an absentee owner and unresponsive leasing agent played a role in the building's struggles.
The local office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker took over leasing efforts this year.

Schouten is an Indianapolis native and Indiana University graduate who joined IBJ in 2006 after stints at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Arizona Republic. He covered the real estate beat for most of those years, and launched the Property Lines blog, before taking over as managing editor in March 2013.

Schouten has been honored for investigative and enterprise reporting by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Alliance of Area Business Publications and the Society of Professional Journalists in Indianapolis. During his tenure as moderator of Property Lines, the blog was recognized twice as the best among business journals by the AAPB.

Schouten serves as secretary of the board of governors of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and is set to serve as the organization's president in 2016. He is treasurer of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, and a board member of the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation.